30 August 2024

Wellington City Council has suspended micromobility company Beam’s licence to operate in the capital city following allegations the company has run a larger fleet of e-scooters on city streets than permitted.

Information provided to Wellington City Council, and other city councils across Australia and New Zealand, alleged Beam had deployed e-scooters in numbers well above the permitted limits and provided misleading data to conceal this from monitoring reports.

Auckland Council cancelled its licence with Beam on Tuesday 27 August.

Wellington City Council’s Chief Planning Officer, Liam Hodgetts, says staff were continuing to work through information from Beam, reporting platform Ride Report, and the whistleblower.

On Wednesday 28 August Council received an audit report from Ride Report which confirmed that between 26 July 2023 and 21 June 2024 Beam’s e-scooter cap had been exceeded by an average daily maximum of 100 e-scooters (with the highest during this time being 185 e-scooters ), which is a breach of their licence.

Mr Hodgetts said the information about the e-scooters was concerning and the City Council has taken the decision to temporarily suspend Beam’s licence to trade in public, effectively stopping Beam from operating in Wellington City until the Council’s investigation is completed and a final decision made.

“Wellington City elected members set a cap on the number of e-scooters that could be deployed at any time to ensure a balance between having enough devices to meet demand while reducing the risk to pedestrians of footpath clutter. As such we cannot continue to have Beam operate while we continue our analysis of what has happened.

“Unlike Auckland we have some Wellington City-specific claims that need to be considered which will take a bit longer to work through. We are aiming to resolve our investigations as quickly as possible to provide certainty for all concerned.”

Beam’s licence has been suspended as of midnight Friday 30 August 2024. The company must remove its scooters and e-bikes from the city by 5pm Sunday 1 September 2024.

Wellington City Council will not be making further comment until the investigation is completed.

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